presenter biographies

 

Howard Brown
Howard M. Brown is a shareholder and founder of the Boston law firm of Bartlett Hackett Feinberg P.C., with a practice concentrating in civil litigation and employment law. He represents both employers and employees before state and federal administrative agencies and courts in cases involving: sexual harassment; age, race, disability and sex discrimination; the Fair Labor Standards Act; wrongful termination; and trade secrets and non-competition agreements. He also counsels clients regarding day-to-day employment law issues involving COBRA; the Family and medical Leave Act; reasonable accommodation to disabled employees; employment contacts; severance agreements; and employee handbooks. In addition, he has substantial litigation experience in commercial law issues including: the Uniform Commercial Code; fraudulent conveyance law; debtor-creditor matters; and business torts. Howard received his J.D. from Suffolk University Law School and his B.S. in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University.

 

 

 

Jodi Delibertis
Ms. DeLibertis, Principal of Greater Good Consulting, has eleven years of professional experience in not-for-profit administration with a specialty in marketing, grantwriting and grants management, fundraising, and project management. In her consulting work with nonprofits, Jodi focuses on strategy, board development, leadership transition, and multicultural and inclusive teams. Jodi also works as the Program Director for Jericho Road Lowell which provides pro bono capacity-building services to nonprofit organizations in Lowell, MA.

 

 

 

Len Deneault
Len Deneault is the Executive Director for MassExcellence, the Massachusetts’ Baldrige-based nonprofit award and education program modeled from the Department of Commerce National Institute of Standards and Technology Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program. He is also the President of the NorthEast Center for Performance Excellence, a consulting consortium that guides companies in using the Baldrige framework to achieve their next level of performance. These roles stem from his experience as a senior and alumni member of the National Baldrige Board of Examiners. He is also an active adjunct faculty member at Bentley College in Waltham and River College in Nashua, NH, teaching classes in operations, business improvement, strategy, and cultural excellence. He brings to the table several years of leadership and project management experience in the sectors of high-tech manufacturing, government, and non-profits.

 

 

 

Lisa Derby Oden
Lisa Derby Oden has her MS in Organization & Management from Antioch University. Lisa is the Director of the Leominster Campus of Mount Wachusett Community College, where she developed the MWCC Entrepreneurial Resource Center. The Entrepreneurial Resource Center provides seminars, an Incubator Without Walls, and an annual regional business plan competition that offers nonprofit and for profit tracks. Lisa also continues to operate her own consulting practice focused on business and association development. With over 25 years as a business owner and 12 years as a consultant, Oden has also been a nonprofit founder, board member, and executive officer for local, state and national organizations. She has worked with nonprofits in strategic planning, program development, corporate development, fundraising, and grant writing.

 

 

 

Laura M. Downing
Ms. Downing is currently a Managing Partner at Ascendant Strategy Management Group. Before Ascendant, Laura was one of the founders and senior executive leaders of Balanced Scorecard Collaborative together with Drs. Kaplan and Norton. She was also a key member of the team who tailored Balanced Scorecard methodology for government and nonprofit organizations. Laura is a regular speaker and instructor at Balanced Scorecard and performance measurement conferences. Her most recent clients have been ACCION International, US Army, FBI, Federal Reserve Bank, Special Olympics, and Catholic Charities. She has a BS in Finance from Georgetown and a MBA from Harvard Business School.

 

 

 

Arlene Fortunato
In 1977, Ms. Fortunato came to Boston as a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. She followed her year of service in the JVC with two years in VISTA. After working as a nonprofit executive, Arlene served as a Senior Advisor to Mayor Thomas Menino in his first term.

 

In 2003, after a 26 year career that included leadership positions in the nonprofit sector as well in the private sector as Senior Vice President and Director of Public Affairs for Citizens Bank, Arlene formed Fortunato Consulting Group which specializes in building the capacity of nonprofit organizations.

 

Ms. Fortunato has taught at the Simmons College Graduate School of Communication Management and the Graduate School of Social Work Urban Scholars Program. Her advice is frequently sought by democratic candidates and she has been recognized for her contributions to the nonprofit sector as the AFP Development Professional of the year in 2002, YWCA Academy of Women Achievers in 2006 and “Top 10 Professional Coaches” in Women’s Business Magazine.

 

 

 

Sam Frank
Mr. Frank founded Synthesis Partnership (www.synthesispartnership.com) in 1995 to assist nonprofits with strategy, planning and organizational development and change. He has worked with organizations across the nonprofit spectrum, including educational and cultural institutions, social service agencies, health care and environmental organizations, associations, and faith-based groups; small start ups with no staff and large, established institutions. He has experience as a staff member, volunteer and trustee as well as a consultant; before founding Synthesis Partnership he was Director of Architecture and Design at Corning Incorporated, and Dean of Architecture and Design at Rhode Island School of Design. Over the past few years he has offered workshops on planning at more than a dozen national and regional conferences. He was educated in English literature at Princeton University, architecture at Harvard University, and architectural history, theory and criticism at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

 

 

Theresa Hamacher
Ms. Hamacher is the President of NICSA, a not-for-profit trade association providing leadership and innovation in educational programming and information exchange within the operations sector of the worldwide investment industry. Terry is the former Chief Investment Officer and Executive Vice President of Pioneer Investment Management USA and the former Chief Investment Officer for Prudential Mutual Funds of Prudential Insurance Company of America. She is the co-author of The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Investing in Stocks (2006). Currently, she serves as the President of the Board of the Guidance Center and has also served on the Board of On the Rise, a nonprofit serving women who are homeless or in crisis. An ESC Consultant since July 2003, Terry resides in Cambridge, MA.

 

 

 

Heather Harker
Prior to working with TSNE, Heather was the Assistant Director of the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, focusing on policy development, advocacy and program implementation. She worked closely with the Director to pass significant pieces of legislation to expand the agency’s services four-fold. While there, Heather received the prestigious three-year Kellogg International Leadership Program fellowship, offered to only 60 people across the United States, southern Africa, and Latin America. She has also lived in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Sabah) working with the deaf community to establish a public health educational series, English as a Second Language programs, and a summer youth leadership camp, all while teaching in schools for the deaf.

 

 

 

Daniel Hunter, Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities (MAASH) Executive Director
Daniel R. Hunter has 17 years' experience in politics and arts advocacy, serving as Director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs (a cabinet appointment requiring Senate confirmation) and running a successful advertising and political consultancy firm in Des Moines. An award-winning playwright, songwriter and humorist, Hunter was appointed in April 2002 by the MAASH-Ed board, Hunter took over the position full time in July 2002.

 

Hunter is the author of two books, Let's Keep Des Moines a Private Joke and The Search for Iowa (& We Don't Grow Potatoes). He has written several plays including Un Tango en La Noche and La Mujer Sin Cara (The Woman without a Face). He is the composer and writer of Picture Postcard Musical, based on the texts of picture postcards from 1906-1910. He has performed a one-man show of topical humor in song accompanying himself on guitar. He has made numerous radio and television appearances including ABC's Good Morning America, National Public Radio, BBC, and CNN Nightly News.

 

Hunter was managing director of Boston Playwrights' Theatre at Boston University from 1999 to 2002, and teaches creating writing at Boston University. He previously served in the Iowa State Governor's cabinet as Director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs.

 

From 1980 to 1997, he owned and operated Dan Hunter Creative Services. Hunter has earned his B.A. from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA and his M.A. from Boston University.

 

 

 

Nancy Jackson
Nancy Jackson, MSW, is principal consultant and owner of Gammy Bird Consulting. She is a certified facilitator, bringing 25 years of executive-level nonprofit and government experience to her practice. For 18 years she co-directed New England Network for Child, Youth, and Family Services, a nonprofit intermediary organization that works to inspire innovation and advance best practices in work with children and adolescents. In the mid-1990s she was trained and certified in the Technologies of Participation facilitation methodologies developed by the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA). Impressed by the simplicity and power of these methods, she launched Gammy Bird Consulting to facilitate planning proesses, staff retreats, and executive transitions.

 

 

 

Deborah S. Koch
Since October 2007 Deborah Koch has been director of Grants at Springfield Technical Community College. Prior to this, she worked as a grantseeking consultant and as Director of Foundation Relations at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

 

Ms. Koch has conducted research into the role of nonprofit institutions in a democratic society, publishing several works, including Mission Possible: 202 Ways to Strengthen the Nonprofit Sector’s Infrastructure and The Nonprofit Policy Agenda. Earlier this year, she signed a contract with Penguin publishers to write a book for their How to Say It series, “How to Say It-Grantwriting.” It will be out in late 2009.

 

Ms. Koch received an MPA from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

 

 

 

Sarah Lange, MSW Founder & Principal Consultant, Legacy Consulting
An accomplished educator and successful counsel to numerous organizations and their leaders, Sarah works extensively with organizations to fine-tune their organizational development and human service management systems. Sarah’s experience ranges across small, medium and large non-profit organizations, as she works to orchestrate strategic improvements at all levels. Her efforts result in increased efficiency and effectiveness, a defined course of action, well-developed strategies and stronger leadership. Sarah is a frequent presenter on non-profit management, leadership, strategic planning, organizational theory and development. In addition, Sarah and her team have been instrumental in raising over $30,000,000 for New England non-profit agencies. Sarah’s expertise and communication skills fuel frequent requests for her services as a trainer. Legacy maintains strong ties with Boston University, Clark University, Worcester State College, Assumption College, and the University of Massachusetts, Boston as a result of Sarah’s work on the faculties of each of these institutions.

 

 

 

Michael E. Malamut
Mr. Malamut is one of the few attorneys nationwide who has also received the high credentials as a professional parliamentarian. His practice focuses on nonprofit governance, in particular, entity formation and obtaining and maintaining tax exempt status. He is the Co-Chair of the Nonprofit Governance Subcommittee of the Business Section of the American Bar Association, an Adjunct Professor at Suffolk University Law School, a Member of the Board of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

 

 

 

Greg McHale
Mr. McHale is the founder and CEO of good2gether, a social web service driving large-scale cause engagement – a constant challenge facing the nonprofit community.

 

McHale has over 25 years of sales, marketing and general management experience. A self-proclaimed “serial and social entrepreneur” he has spent the last 10+ years of his career creating successful companies, including Virtual Ink and cMarket.

 

At Virtual Ink, McHale raised over $57 million in venture capital funding, and established the brand new product category of portable electronic whiteboards, selling over 100,000 unit, reaching over $10 million per year in sales.

 

cMarket, McHale’s first ‘social’ venture, has changed the nonprofit auction market by delivering a web-based tool that enables nonprofit organizations to better manage and market their charity auctions to their constituencies.

 

 

 

Dylan N. Miyake
Mr. Miyake is a Managing Partner with Ascendant Strategy Management Group. Prior to Ascendant, Dylan was vice president of Balanced Scorecard Collaborative (BSCol), responsible for the global Media & Applications team. Mr. Miyake has worked with a variety of international organizations in the United Kingdom, Finland, Angola, Brazil, Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Australia, Mexico, Argentina and Thailand. A frequent speaker and writer, Dylan has contributed articles to DM Review, Intelligent Enterprise, and Balanced Scorecard Report. Dylan earned his BA in government, magna cum laude, from Bowdin College and his MBA from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

 

 

Peter J. Moser
Peter J. Moser is a partner with the law firm of Robinson & Cole LLP. Mr. Moser concentrates his practice in the areas of labor and employment law, representing management-side clients in a wide variety of matters. In the labor arena, Mr. Moser represents companies in collective bargaining, arbitration proceedings, and the defense of unfair labor practice charges before the National Labor Relations Board.

 

Mr. Moser is actively involved in the Labor and Emplyment Section of the Massachusetts Bar Association, and is a past co-chair of the Employee Rights and Responsibilities Committee.

 

Mr. Moser has served as an adjunct professor at Boston College, and is a frequent speaker and author on labor and employment topics. He has presented labor and employment seminars for many trade groups and client organizations, and has guest lectured at Quinnipiac Law School, Babson College’s Graduate School of Business, Curry College, and the University of Hartford. His recent articles concern the impact of the AFL-CIO split for non-unionized employers, the enforceability of non-competition agreements, and military leave rights and obligations.

 

Mr. Moser received his J.D. from Boston College Law School and his B.A., cum laude, from Boston College.

 

 

 

Susan Musinsky
Susan Musinsky serves as a Co-Director of the Social Innovation Forum, a Cambridge-based organization which accelerates the development of enduring solutions to social problems by directing an alternative flow of local resources to innovative, results-oriented organizations striving for efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability. Susan was hired initially to design a business model for the organization and for helping to move a volunteer venture into a sustainable organization. As part of her work, Susan mentors other leaders on their own growth and development in the non-profit field. Prior to this work, Susan served as a consultant to organizations, and for 8 years served as the Executive Director of the National Conference for Community and Justice where she grew the organization three-fold during her tenure.

 

 

 

Anita Pelletier, Esq.
Anita Pelletier concentrates on matters related to tax-exempt and non-profit organizations and their corporate governance, fundraising, state regulation, and taxation. Her practice includes representation of private colleges and universities, hospitals and health-care systems, social clubs, trade associations, private foundations, and religious organizations.

 

She has worked on issues such as tax exemption and private foundation status, and unrelated business income tax (UBIT). She has advised clients on corporate governance, from the creation of the corporate enity to its dissolution.

 

In addition, Ms. Pelletier has lectured on non-profit and tax-exempt issues before organizations, including the National Association of College and University Business Officers and the Erie County Bar Association. She has also given presentations at continuing legal education seminars.

 

 

 

David Peter Stroh
Mr. Stroh is a founding partner of Bridgeway Partners (www.bridgewaypartners.com) and was also a co-founder (with Peter Senge, et al) of Innovation Associates, the pioneering consulting firm in the area of organization learning. He has 30 years experience in visionary planning, leadership development, systems thinking, organization design, and change management. Mr. Stroh’s nonprofit clients have included the Home for Little Wanderers, Collaborative for Development Action, and National Urban League – as well as such foundations as Kellogg, Soros, and Pew.

 

 

 

Ken Phillips

Ken Phillips has 25 yeas experience in planning and getting results for nonprofits – as Head of Organizational Development for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Chairman of InterAction, Executive Director of Childreach (Forster Parents Plan USA), Vice President of Development at Save the Children, and President of AIESEC-US. This experience is enhanced through 14 years experience in consulting and training in nonprofit leadership, planning and management with organizations in the US and abroad such as Alzheimer’s Society, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Charities Aid, and International Youth Foundation. Mr. Phillips just returned to Boston from Geneva where he was responsible for organizational development for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. This included work on how organizations develop and what can be done in each OD area ranging from leadership to governance, planning to managing, finance to fundraising, volunteering to program capacity building.

 

 

 

Geeta Pradhan
Geeta Pradhan is Director of the New Economy Initiative at the Boston Foundation and co-developer of the Boston Indicators Project. She co-authored the 2000 and 2002 Boston Indicators reports: The Wisdom of Our Choices and Creativity and Innovation: A Bridge to the Future. At the Boston Foundation, Geeta also developed and launched The New Economy Initiative — a special 5-year effort that uses networking, constituency building and grant making to reduce the digital divide and to empower young people, adults and nonprofit organizations to compete effectively in the 21st century. She has worked in the field of community development, public policy, environment and urban design for over sixteen years. Prior to joining the Boston Foundation, Geeta worked with the City of Boston. From 1987 –1994 as Assistant Director at the Department of Neighborhood Development and from 1994–2000, as Director of Sustainable Boston. Geeta received her undergraduate degree in architecture from New Delhi, India, and her graduate degree in Urban Design from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. She serves on several nonprofit boards including the national Technology Funders Collaborative. She has written and presented on issues of the environmental justice, sustainable development, indicators for social change, nonprofit capacity building, and the future of cities, and has won several awards for her work in urban communities.

 

 

 

Cindy Rowe
Cindy Rowe, Principal of Rowe Resources, has worked for over twenty years with non-profit organizations, government agencies, and political campaigns to help them maximize their resources in the areas of fundraising, special event and conference planning, board management, and legislative advocacy. Prior to launching her own consulting practice, she managed a statewide political campaign and worked for both the Administration and legislature in the areas of public policy and community affairs. She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard College, and her J.D. from Boston College Law School, and is a member of the Massachusetts Bar. She is also a member of several non-profit community boards.

 

 

 

Lori Tsuruda
Lori Tsuruda is the founder and executive director of People Making a Difference (PMD; http://www.pmd.org) and the president of the Directors of Volunteer Administration (DOVA), a professional association of volunteer managers in Greater Boston. She organizes one-time service projects and recruits and manages the individual volunteers and corporate volunteers to staff them. She also assists charities and companies in improving their community involvement programs, relying on a foundation of knowledge that she has gained from feedback from PMD’s 3800+ volunteers, from organizing nearly 700 service projects, from partnering with 108 recipient charities, and from her 30 years as a volunteer manager. While serving as the regional director for Earth Share of New England, she promoted a variety of environmental causes, from jet ways to hotel ballrooms, at community events.

 

 

 

Dr. David Turcotte
Program Manager at the University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Center for Family, Work, and Community, Dr. Turcotte has over 20 years experience in developing and organizing training and education programs for a variety of professionals. He directed a healthy homes demonstration program that trained home health care professionals and other staff on the detection and prevention of residential environmental health hazards. Dr. Turcotte conducts workshops on a variety of healthy homes issues and health hazards and serves as project evaluator for NIEHS funded initiative to address environmental and occupational hazards facing the Brazilian immigrant community. He has a strong research interest on the health impacts of the built environment.

 

 

 

Jay W. Vogt
Mr. Vogt is a change consultant with over 20 years of experience working with leaders and teams in government, nonprofit organizations, corporations and small businesses. He founded Peoplesworth, a private consulting practice, in 1982. Jay is an accomplished facilitator, mediator, trainer, management consultant and coach, and especially enjoys working with large groups.

 

 

 

Bill Walczak
Bill Walczak is most associated with the Codman Square Health Center, a multi service center which he co-founded in the 1970s and has been its CEO since 1980. The Health Center is a major provider of medical and other clinical services and of community services including job training, civic health, education, youth and other programs. The Health Center serves over 20,000 individuals, has over 130,000 annual visits, with 270 employees and a budget of $15 million.

 

Mr. Walczak is also founding president of Codman Academy Charter School, a high school located on the health center campus. He is a co-founder and co-CEO of DotWell, a partnership with the Dorchester House Multi-Service Center. Overall, the DotWell enterprise encompasses two health centers serving nearly 45,000 individuals, and includes a school, after school programs, adult education, after school activities, a community technology center, public health programs, civic engagement programs, recreation center including a pool and gym, and many other services. This effort is considered a national and even international model of an NGO collaboration which uses the medical system as a platform for community regeneration. In this capacity, Mr. Walczak also works on international programs in South Africa, Northern Ireland and Vietnam.

 

Bill is the past president of the Codman Square Neighborhood Council and Columbia Savin Hill Civic Association (both in Dorchester). He is past President of Boston HealthNet, a network of 15 community health centers with Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine. He is an overseer of Boston Medical Center, is on the boards of STRIVE and the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, and is on the steering committee of the Nonprofit Strategy Committee, which is seeking to establish a state-wide nonprofit association for Massachusetts. He serves on Advisory Boards of the Civil Rights Project of Harvard University and Boston Landmarks Orchestra. He served on the Boston Park Commission, on the Mayor's Welfare Reform Commission, and was a board member of Boston 2000, the City's effort to celebrate the start of the new millennium.

 

 

 

Lydia Watts
Ms. Watts, Principal of Greater Good Consulting, has over 12 years of experience as a nonprofit Executive Director. She also has many years of experience speaking to and training groups of people on a variety of topics most recently: how to start a nonprofit; social entrepreneurship; strategic planning and healthy workplaces. Ms. Watts’ experience as a founder of a not-for-profit in Washington, DC at the age of 26 positions her to answer questions of leadership within younger generations with a personal perspective.

 

 

 

Michael Weekes
Michael D. Weekes is the president and CEO of the Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers, Inc., the states’ largest statewide human services association. His responsibilities include policy development, legislative advocacy, and creating an agenda for improved state and federal policies for providers and the people they serve. He is also a co-chair of The Collaborative, an alliance of human service groups.

 

He is chairman of the National Council of Nonprofit Associations, and has served on numerous commissions and task forces focused on human services. Prior to his current position, he served for four and half years as the deputy commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Social Services. He is a founder of Masachusetts Families for Kids and was the assistant executive director of the Center for Human Development, the largest multi-service human services organization in western Massachusetts. He has also been adjunct faculty at Simmons College Graduate School of Social Work and the Western New England College School of Social Work.

 

 

 

Jennifer Wiley-Cordone
Jennifer Wiley-Cordone has been with the Center for Democracy and Humanity at Mount Wachusett Community College since January of 2007 where she is the Director of Capacity Building with oversight of The Institute for Nonprofit Development, the only identified nonprofit support center affiliated with a community college. Jennifer’s particular areas of interest are evaluation, program development, project management, systems improvement and marketing. Jennifer has her BA in Psychology from Central Connecticut State University; she continued her education with a Master’s Degree in Women’s Studies from The Ohio State University and a Master’s Degree in Education, Policy & Leadership, also from OSU. At the Education Development Center (EDC) in Newton, MA she worked for two years with the National Center for Hate Crime Prevention traveling the country providing training to police officers, teachers and community members on how to identify precursors to hate crime. When her responsibilities at EDC shifted to the Office of Sponsored Programs, she continued to provide training and curriculum development—this time focusing internally on research ethics, program development and research evaluation methods. From 2001 to 2007, Jennifer has facilitated participatory decision making and consensus process with large groups, primarily through her involvement as a Board Member of Sawyer Hill Eco-Village, a $24 M resident-designed affordable housing project in Berlin, MA.